Football transfer rumours: Marcelo to move from Real Madrid to Juventus?

Marcelo could leave Real Madrid and head to Juventus in the summer, according to someone else’s agent.
Photograph: Soccrates Images/Getty Images

A massive transfer merry-go-round looks to be on the cards come the summer, if Ricardo Schlieper is to be believed. Schlieper is the agent of Ajax’s much-admired Argentinian left-back Nicolás Tagliafico, and told the Buenos Aires station Radio Rivadavia that he had heard his client’s “name is on Real Madrid’s list, because Marcelo will go to Juventus in the summer”.

This would of course free up Alex Sandro to complete a long-rumoured move to [insert name of pretty much every European megaclub here]. “Ajax have decided on their selling price,” Schlieper claimed of Tagliafico. “Which clubs are interested? All I can say is that among them is a Spanish giant which has decided that now is the right time for Tagliafico to take that leap in quality.”

Leicester set to make quick move for Brendan Rodgers as new manager

Read more

If Marcelo does end up in Turin he might have Mauro Icardi for a teammate. Repubblica say that even though Inter have fallen out with their attacking ace so emphatically that they have stripped him of the captaincy and he has spent the last couple of matches on the sidelines (though injury also played a part in that). Inter have offered Icardi a cleverly-constructed new contract, which will reduce his release clause from a frankly unachievable €110m to a potentially gettable €80m.

Thus the door has been opened for deep-pocketed potential purchasers, but today’s Corriere dello Sport insists on its front page that only Juventus and Napoli are likely to be able to buy him, even though “a proposal will arrive from a great foreign club which will be impossible to refuse”, because the 26-year-old “does not want to leave Italy”. “For family and personal reasons a clear line has been drawn: the Icardi family does not intend to leave the country,” they write. Though as it happens they wrote that on the very day that Icardi’s family did leave the country, his wife and agent Wanda departing for a mini-break in Dubai with her five children.

Manchester United and Liverpool are among clubs that have been alerted to the availability of James Rodríguez, reports the Mirror. The Colombian’s two-year loan from Real Madrid to Bayern Munich will end in the summer and the German club’s president, Uli Hoeneß, has insisted that “if the coach does not use him, I’m not going to spend €42m”. The attacking midfielder has played the full 90 minutes of a league game just twice this season, most recently on Saturday against Hertha Berlin.

Andrea Radrizzani will put Leeds United up for sale if they fail to seal promotion this season, says the Mail. “The ramifications of not going up have been made clear to those connected to the club,” they note, “and insiders have noted an increased anxiety to executives on matchdays.” Though Radrizzani later took to Twitter to describe the story as “a lot of nonsense”.

And finally Fulham had to cancel a team bonding go-karting outing because they couldn’t afford the insurance, Tom Car-neary Cairney has revealed. “We did book go-karting,” he said, “but insurance was too high so it got cancelled. It is hard coming to the training ground and keeping morale up. People who are charismatic and come into training smiling is what you need.” It’s not a question of charisma – simple cheerfulness would do. Though in this case a touch of delusion would probably help.